Granting a Thief's Wishes

Nick threw the rolled up graph in his hands to Ryan, who caught it with ease. "Neridae is upstairs," he said to Ryan. "All locked and secured."

"Perfect," Ryan said, grinning.

Oh…oh dear. Nick's deranged too. I furrowed my brows, as if it would help ease the pain that had been throbbing behind my eyebrow for the last 20 minutes. I didn't know what to think or what to believe in anymore. And even though I had more important things to think of – Ethan, Neridae and what would happen if we couldn't get out of this…

All I could think of was how hurt I was seeing Nick betraying me like this.

As if he could read my mind, Nick turned to me and shrugged – his expression stony, his eyes portraying boredom. "Bros before hoes," he said before exchanging a few words with Ryan and making his way upstairs again.

I stared at his back until he disappeared into the room upstairs.

Sensing my distress, Ethan looked at me worriedly and I shook my head.

I won't think about Nicholas. No, that bastard didn't deserve an ounce of my time. He was probably in this from the word 'go'. I had to think about how to get most of us out here safely. Most of us, since to my utter surprise, I heard a shrill scream coming up from upstairs.

Ethan thrashed forward.

"Stop it," he growled.

"Sara Rodriguez, was it? And Tiffany Carnahan. How sweet. Well, we're just getting started with them."

I know who Tiffany was. Sara…where did I—

Oh god, the girl with the flower sprites. And the pixies too.

I suddenly felt very angry.

My breathing became even shallower as I glared daggers at Ryan.

"You…you sick bastard!" I spat, feeling frustrated tears forming at the corner of my eyes, rolling down my cheeks. Ethan looked at me, his jaws slacked and all the anger in his eyes went away. I didn't know why, I didn't care why.

Ryan looked towards his tattooed friend. "Get the damn warlock down here."

But she didn't need telling as she was hurrying up the stairs as another scream echoed through the building.

"Susannah—" Ryan began but I cut him off.

"Don't! Don't you 'Susannah' me!" I screamed, an angry sob escaping my lips. I was in a tremendous amount of pain from all the screaming and moving. But I didn't care either. All I wanted to do was summon enough strength to kill him.

I wanted to kill him.

Then, before my eyes, the building burst into flames.

It took me a split second to realize that the source of fire came from me.